at the very sentence where it had been broken off, and so continued the argument. While yet a student, Mr. Hey likewise accustomed himself to the observance of certain rules for the distribution of his several employments and the improvement of his time. He rose early, and so arranged his occupations that a particular portion of the day was appropriated to each. On the Sunday, he never went to the dissecting-room, nor would he accept any invitation to visit, that he might experience no interruption in the "holy duties" and "holy pleasures" of that "sacred rest." He has been often heard to say, that his sabbaths were the happiest of his days during his residence in London, and that the complete suspension of all secular pursuits prepared him to resume his studies with renewed ardour and activity.

On leaving London he reflected, with emotions of gratitude, on the goodness of God. His health had suffered no interruption by constant and intense application to study. His religious principles had not been impaired; and he had been preserved from falling by the various temptations to which his situation had exposed him. Hence he was induced to express himself in the words of the psalmist, "He hath showed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city," Psa. xxxi. 21.

Shortly after Mr. Hey's return from London, he entered upon practice as a surgeon and apothecary at Leeds, and was united in marriage, on the 30th of July, 1761, to Miss Alice

Banks; a connexion which was the source of a large amount of domestic happiness. From the time he first entered upon the duties of his profession, he treated the most serious accidents; and, contrary to the custom of the medical practitioners of Leeds at that time, performed all surgical operations that were necessary, never declining any cases which presented themselves on account of their difficulty or danger. Yet he was no stranger to the usual struggles of early professional life; his progress was very slow; his range of practice narrowly circumscribed; and nearly ten years elapsed before the regular emoluments of it were equal to the expenses of his family. Very little was he then disposed to anticipate the reputation which he afterwards acquired, and the long and successful career that awaited him. No public institution for the relief of the sick existed at that time at Leeds. In the year 1767, an infirmary was established, in the formation of which Mr. Hey took an active part, and of which he was immediately appointed one of the medical officers, and, in a few years, became the senior surgeon. This establishment opened a wide field for the exercise of his professional talent.

About the same time, a very friendly intercourse commenced between Mr. Hey and a man of very opposite religious sentiments. Dr. Joseph Priestley then resided in Leeds, and finding Mr. Hey possessed a congenial mind with his own on scientific subjects, and was

well acquainted with the chemistry of that period, he conferred much with him on the subject of the various pursuits in which he was engaged, and always imparted to him the discoveries he made in the properties of gases, to which his attention was at that time principally directed. Dr. Priestley was likewise induced to alter and correct his opinions on vision, light, and colours, in consequence of the facts and arguments suggested to him by Mr. Hey. The high opinion which Dr. P. entertained of the talents and acquirements of Mr. Hey, induced him to propose his name for admission to the Royal Society, of which he was elected fellow; and in a letter apprising him of that distinction, he remarks, "I wish I could say that one of the members in ten had equal pretensions to it." In the Memoirs of Dr. Priestley, the following notice occurs: "The only person in Leeds who gave much attention to my experiments was Mr. Hey, a surgeon. He was a zealous Methodist,* and wrote answers to some of my theological tracts; but we always conversed with the greatest freedom on philosophical subjects, without mentioning anything relating to theology. When I left Leeds, he begged of me the earthen trough in which I had made all my experiments while I was

In whatever sense Dr. Priestley used this expression, it is strictly true that Mr. Hey was, in early life, for several years a member of the society of Wesleyan Methodists. After leaving them, he continued a member of the Established Church till his death,

there."* The " answers to tracts," here referred to, were entitled "A Defence of the Divinity of Christ," and "A short Defence of the Doctrine of the Atonement." "The occasion of my writing the short defences," says Mr. Hey, in a letter written some years after, แ was as follows. A large number of penny pamphlets against the leading doctrines of Christianity were published here, and were circulated with great industry." (These were written by Dr. Priestley, but without his name.) 66 A very zealous man, but a wild enthusiast, who lived here, then published an answer, which Dr. Priestley seemed to glory in. Indeed, it was most injudiciously written. Other short answers afterwards came out, but these were so defective in argument, as well as acrid in style, that they were clearly a matter of triumph to the Socinians." "I first intended to have published three penny pamphlets on the subjects of the divinity of Christ, the atonement, and man's moral depra vity. But the two first swelling out unavoidably beyond my design, I would not any further break in upon my professional studies. What I have said proceeded from the fullest conviction of my judgment. I wish it may do good."

In the year 1773, Mr. Hey received an injury in his knee by striking it against the stonework of a bath, the effects of which accident were aggravated soon after, by his horse falling with him. These injuries laid the foundation

* Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley, etc., p 63.

of a lameness which continued during the remainder of his life. But about three years

afterwards he received a stroke upon the thigh of the weak limb, which, for a time, threatened to terminate his professional labours. He was now, when in the full tide of prosperity and reputation as a surgeon, totally disabled from using all bodily exertion, and it appeared probable that he would never regain the power of walking. Deeply was he affected by this afflictive dispensation, but he was enabled to sustain it with a meek acquiescence in the Divine will, and reliance upon the gracious declaration of his heavenly Father. "If it be the will of God," said he to an intimate friend, "that I should be confined to my sofa, and he command me to pick straws during the remainder of my life, I hope I should feel no repugnance to his good pleasure." After a long residence at Bath, he was, however, able once more to resume his practice, with the assistance of a carriage; but from this period he was never able to walk without a crutch, and could not bear the fatigue of standing more than a few minutes at a time.

But other trials now awaited Mr. Hey, calculated yet more keenly to exercise his faith and patience, as a parent as well as a Christian. His eldest son, Mr. Richard Hey, had just completed his medical education, and commenced assisting his father in the anxieties and fatigues of his now very extensive practice, when he was attacked with symptoms of pulmonary consumption. The progress of the disease had